NEW YORK, USA – Finding the right way for China and the United States to get along with each other is what both nations and the international community need the most, a top Chinese envoy said on Thursday.
Chinese ambassador to the US Xie Feng, speaking at the Vision China event at the Asia Society in New York, said that for the past 50 years, the reopening and development of China-US relations was the most important event in international relations and the biggest contributor to global peace and prosperity.
“History provides us inspirations to look ahead to the future,” Xie said in a keynote speech. He said that in the next 50 years, charting that proper course will be critical to international relations.
Jointly hosted by China Daily and Bank of China, the event brought together more than 200 people to discuss “inspiration from the past” and “vision for the future”.
Also speaking at the event, Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said the country’s only national English-language newspaper has chronicled the development of Sino-US relations and “faithfully recorded the bonds forged between the two peoples”.
“China-US relations are the most important bilateral relations in the world, and they must be managed well, despite the risks and challenges,” Qu said. “Just as President Xi Jinping pointed out ‘the hope of the China-US relationship lies in the people, its foundation is in grassroots connections, its future depends on the youth, and its vitality comes from subnational exchanges’ – those are the key aspects we should constantly work to strengthen,” Qu said.
The veteran journalist said he is a firm believer that “mutual understanding is the foundation of friendly cooperation” and that “a modernized China represents an opportunity, rather than a challenge, to the US.”
Ge Haijiao, chairman of Bank of China, said it is the longest-continuously operating and most globalized bank in China. The bank has been a witness, participant and contributor to the ever-deepening and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the US.
“Bank of China is firmly committed to promoting trade and commerce between China and the United States, to the benefit of both societies,” Ge said in a message read in New York by Hu Wei, president and CEO of Bank of China USA and chairman of the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA.
The Vision China morning session featured presentations from six Americans. They came to tell stories of friendship with China in a time wrought with uncertainty. They are people who have remained steadfast in their support of China.
In 1979, teenagers Kelly Van Dries and her elder sister Kitty were working at a rodeo in Simonton, Texas, which was owned by their parents. Kelly had the honour of presenting a cowboy hat to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.
Sarah Lande of Iowa recalled the friendly exchanges of the city of Muscatine with Hebei province.
Their presentations were followed by a Gen Z debate and exchange in the afternoon, at which US and Chinese youths debated “The impact of artificial intelligence on human life” and discussed how to avoid the Thucydides Trap, while overcoming “information bubbles” for better China-US communication.
